Seth

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Lewis's ability is easy to take for granted, sure, but what's constantly taken for granted is Jourdan Lewis the person. He's one of those rare guys who can cut out all the bullshit (there's been plenty thrown his way) and actually put in the kind of time and effort that most NFL guys only say they do. From the people I know who know Jourdan Lewis, he's an incomprehensibly good person. He's one of those guys you just wonder how the hell can someone be so instrinsically good AND good at everything. Then you meet his girlfriend and go "Oh, well, okay, that expalins some of it."

Make no mistake, you can't be as good as Lewis without superb natural ability. But as for a next-Lewis, yeah Ambry and LeVert have that kind of ability, but Peppers, Woodson, Tom Brady: those are the guys with comparable commitment.

Running into was a half-measure because punters are too good at getting contact on nearly successful blocks, and they were drawing 15-yard, game-swinging penalties with bad acting. Note that Jordan Glasgow might actually have gotten away with a running into the kicker above (on replay it appears Jocz was the one who tipped the punt), but also that it was extremely tacky: the punter kept his leg extended and made sure he made maximum contact with Glasgow, who had turned around and stopped where he had jumped.

Really like incidental facemasks they just need to not make running into the kicker a penalty anymore. Roughing has to stay because the punter is prone, but a player who's clearly just going for a punt block shouldn't be penalized, and turning a 4th and 5 into a 1st down is giving the offense a turnover for it. Plus it's encouraging punters to try to get run into. It just needs to go.

Because Brian doesn't write the bullets. He has me listen to the podcast and write up what I thought you guys talked about, because the best time to post a podcast is 5 hours before he gets up in the morning.

And I do want to discuss City of Thieves. It's a great book my grandma put on my Kindle then died before I could talk to her about it so I feel cheated.

It does, because if the ACC, SEC, Pac12 and/or Big12 champs make the 4-team playoff this year, there are going to be 2 teams from those conferences in NY6 bowls. We already know there will be at least 2 Big Ten teams (B1G CG winner and OSU).

Simplified version of what I wrote in the article:

12 spots in NY6 bowls

Up to 4 conferences guaranteed 2 spots by having one team in the playoffs. (so max 8 teams that aren't Big Ten teams have berths)

Group of Five guaranteed one spot. (9/12 teams)

Two non-playoff B1G teams could be ahead of Michigan in the pecking order (B1G CG winner and OSU) (11/12 teams)

So in a nightmare scenario there could be up to 11 teams that get spots before Michigan can even be considered as an at-large. So all it would take from there is one at-large team passing Michigan. The most likely candidates would be USC or whichever Group of Five team (Navy or WMich) doesn't get the Group of Five auto-bid.

This would require the Big XII champ getting into the playoff ahead of Ohio State and the B1G champ. Ohio State getting booted from the playoffs would put the Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl if the B1G CG winner is in the playoffs, or bump them down to the Orange if the B1G champ doesn't make the playoffs.

If the Big XII doesn't get a playoff spot they're likely to have just one team in the NY6 (their champ), creating another at-large spot. Ditto the Pac 12 (e.g. if Colorado wins tonight and doesn't get a playoff bid) and the ACC (e.g. if Clemson loses tomorrow to VT).

You literally just made the same argument that two coaches and I were laughing about two nights ago at the bar. But the stats! But what happens when he's lined up as a middle linebacker and he doesn't teleport around offensive lineman! Look at the stats! Look at Scales!

Dude it's not 1950 anymore. The simple fact that Michigan forces teams in the present day to try to rediscover three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust is your answer.

That shouldn't take away from Urban Meyer's excellent offensive strategy or the athleticism of his best players. You can be the best player on the field but you are still just one of 22 and On Any Given play your coach may put you in a position to succeed or you are opposing coach may put you in a position where you can't do much no matter who you are.

Michigan is getting crunched on awesome receivers. I think they feel really good about Nico Collins and DPJ, plus they are including Hawkins in this class. So they're in a situation where either Tarik Black or Oliver Martin, two absolutely excellent prospects beyond Holloman's level, might not fit in this class. Getting four of those 5 is a very good receiver year. We could make a long list of Michigan receivers in history who would not have made it in this class.

Did you see many receiver screens against Michigan? Isn't that strange against a 4-3 defense? I get the argument that Peppers was a 4-2-5 safety but not that he didn't change the look of every game. Every team we played had to throw out half of their offensive Playbook.

They don't have enough data, correct. The SEC was a weak conference so if Bama loses to Florida they could drop out of the top five. It's highly doubtful considering they have a 52-6 non-conference win over USC, but with humans in charge you can never be more than 92% about anything.

I think they made that agreement before the Playoff Committee announced how they're going to do things. The procedure now is vague but seems to only guarantee the Big 12 and SEC champions a slot in a CFP bowl:

The Big 12 champion will earn the Conference's automatic berth for its CFP contract bowl slot. If one or more teams tie for the Big 12 championship, the Conference's tiebreaker procedure will be used to determine the Big 12 designated team.

Additional Big 12 Teams in the CFP

If a Big 12 team(s) is rated in the top four of the CFP, it will play in one of the semifinals. This does not affect the Big 12 designee being placed in a CFP New Year's Bowl if it is not one of the top four teams. There is not a limit on the number of teams from one conference that can be placed in CFP bowls. Additional Big 12 teams may be selected for other CFP New Year's bowls based on their ranking in the final CFP Poll.

Big 12 Bowl Partners

Once the CFP has filled its bowl slots, Big 12 bowl partners will make selections from the remaining bowl eligible teams. Following is the order of selection. A bowl may pick from any available teams when it reaches its spot in the selection order.

Valero Alamo

Russell Athletic

AdvoCare V100 Texas

AutoZone Liberty

Cactus

Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl

In other words they're at the mercy of the CFP Committee until the Alamo Bowl.

If the SEC or Big XII rep is in the playoffs then the Sugar can get an at-large team in there. We're talking extremely rare circumstances but it could happen:

SEC or Big XII champ in the playoffs

3 more non-Big Ten teams in the playoffs

B1G Champ in the Rose Bowl

Another B1G team in the Orange Bowl

A 3rd B1G team gets an at-large bid to the Sugar

It's not too weird. Imagine a season where Bama, Clemson, Texas and USC are undefeated, Michigan went undefeated until getting upset in the B1G CG by 4-loss Wisconsin, and Ohio State's only loss was by a hail mary in Ann Arbor.

The four undefeated conference champs go to the playoffs, the de jure B1G Champ Wisconsin goes to the Rose Bowl, and then Michigan and Ohio State make different New Year's Six Bowls.

I said it before and I'll say it again: All can still be right with the world

He fell down on a lot of tackle attempts and there are a lot of other rough edges in his game. He plays young. Top 15? I guess because there's upside left, but when I was debating that in my head I saw him miss two more tackles and went with just a star.

Fickell isn't really the brains behind the defense. He's more of a...how do i put this without making accusations I can't suppo...oh what the hell, he's the bag-man. Don't quote me.

Chris Ash was the de facto defensive coordinator for a time and now it's Schiano, who's a Brian Kelly-level asshole but also a good enough coach that he made RUTGERS good. Larry Johnson has total control over the defensive line and that has been the basis of their voyage to elite under Meyer. The massive talent disparity between Ohio State's defense and the teams they play makes up for the fact that this defense isn't very well coordinated. Where OSU's offense uses its talent every play for maximum efficiency, I think their defense doesn't get all they could out of what they have because the secondary isn't running anything that works in concert with what the defensive line is causing. They bring a cornerback into the box all the time but don't blitz him, so you wind up with a cornerback in the right position with no idea what to do with it.

I upload it late at night actually so podcast apps can probably get it at 1 a.m. or whenever. If you set your app (I use Podcast Republic) to auto-download new episodes it should be on your phone when you wake up Monday morning.